A supreme court judge in Canada, no doubt wearing a flannel robe and banging a gavel made of denim, has ruled that using a Happy Gilmore-style golf swing “breaches a duty of care” on the golf course.

In the case, the plaintiff sued after the defendant tried to impress his golfing buddies during a bachelor party outing that included beer, tequila, and marijuana. On the 16th hole, under the influence, Travis Hayter whipped out his “Happy Gilmore shot,” which the court defined in 2008 as “running from five to ten feet behind the ball and hitting it on the run.”

The ball leapt up and struck the plaintiff in the wrist, then in the chest, causing permanent damage to the radial nerve. The plaintiff no longer was able to return to his former work as a woodsman* on account of the incident. [THR]

A woodsman? That’s a job? I thought that was what you call someone too drunk to get a job. It’s still unknown whether the case will have legal implications in the U.S., but it’s going to set Canadian stereotypes back 30 years. This is like a Mexican suing because he could no longer sleep under a giant sombrero and got laid off from the chihuahua farm.